WORLD SERIES BY RENAULT CATALUNYA RACE REPORT

Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - 16:45

Sørensen finds response to Magnussen

The drivers contesting the 2012 season mainly had the edge on the second day of Formula Renault 3.5 Series collective testing. Marco Sørensen (Lotus) topped Wednesday’s sheets with a lap of 1:28.971, though Sweden’s Marcus Ericsson (ISR) struck a blow for the newcomers by posting the second-fastest time behind the Dane.

The Catalan sun was burning bright at the start of the day. In response, the teams went for new tyres, with Arthur Pic (AV Formula), Marcus Ericsson and Marco Sørensen making the running, the Dane ending the 90-minute session atop the timesheets with a lap of 1:28.971. Already looking very much the part, the Swedish new boy was second-quickest ahead of Arthur Pic, Carlos Sainz Jr (Carlin) and Will Stevens (Dams).

In a fairly sedate start to the afternoon several drivers practised their wheel changes while others went off on long runs, among them 2012 British F3 International Series runner-up Jazeman Jaafar (Carlin) and Sergey Sirotkin (ISR), who finished third in Auto GP World Series. The last sets of new tyres came out when temperatures began to fall away at the end of the day, though Arthur Pic , the fastest man of the afternoon, could not improve on Marco Sørensen’s morning time.

Marco Sørensen: “I ended the season with a retirement so it’s been a real boost for me to have two days testing straightaway. In my head I’m already in 2013, and the aim is to compete in Formula Renault 3.5 Series again. Over these two days we’ve been able to identify what had been bothering us since Budapest.